Category: Breakfast

I know that I’ve posted something very similar here before, but I thought I’d add this one, too, since I home-fried the potatoes this time and used a couple of different ingredients.

Breakfast Tacos

1/2 of a 12 ounce link of chorizo sausage
(you’ll only need half of this, so you’ll have some leftover for another use)
2 -3 Tbsp olive or canola oil
1/3 cup of fresh minced onion (red or white, your choice)
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
2 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut into half-inch dice
(I used Yukon Golds)
1/2 of a red bell pepper. finely diced
about a 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh spinach
half a can of black beans, rinsed and drained
(I used the other half of the can leftover from making tortilla soup)
about 1/2 cup grated cheese (we used a blend of jack and cheddar)
6 large eggs
8 fresh whole wheat tortillas

Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Add garlic and onions and saute briefly until softened and translucent. Add potatoes and stir until they are lightly coated with oil. Continue cooking potatoes, stirring occasionally until they are softened and browned all over. While potatoes are cooking, start to cook sausage. I cooked the sausage on the grill and then removed the casing, but you could also take it out of the casing beforehand and then brown it, like hamburger meat, in a separate skillet. Either way, you need to blot or drain the grease off; chorizo is pretty greasy.

When the potatoes are pretty well browned on all sides, add the bell pepper and spinach to them, lower the heat a little and continue cooking until both vegetables have wilted.

When the veggies have softened, add the black beans and continue cooking and stirring. When the sausage is done (remove it from the casing and blot and crumble it if you’ve grilled it), add half of it to the potato mixture and stir.

Scramble the eggs in a separate pan (or in the pan that you cooked the chorizo in, using a bit of the sausage fat to cook them). Fill the tortillas with some of the potato mixture, some of the scrambled eggs and a bit of the cheese. Serve with some tropical fruits (we had mango and pineapple). Dig in!

NB: This time we scrambled the eggs separately, because Hubby was afraid that Boy and Girl would balk at the blend of different ingredients in the potatoes (they didn’t). So, the next time that we make this, I would probably just crack the eggs into the potato mixture and cook and stir until they are done and then just have all of the filling ingredients mixed together.

This recipe (a HUGE favorite in our family) comes from my friend, Anita, in Northern Virginia. She also adapts this recipe to make Zucchini Bread, but I’m currently sans garden and subsequently, sans good, fresh zucchini, so we just stick with bananas.

Banana Spice Muffins

1/3 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
2 large (or 3 small) very ripe bananas, slightly mashed
1 2/3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves

for optional cinnamon topping:
1 Tbsp. cinnamon-sugar (Optional)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts (Optional)

Stir butter, sugar, eggs and water together until well blended (I use a KitchenAid mixer). Stir in bananas. Mix in flour, soda, baking powder and spices. Pour into 12 muffin cups (lightly greased with Pam or lined with paper or foil muffin cups) or one regular-sized loaf pan. Top with nuts and cinnamon-sugar (if desired) and press topping lightly into batter. Bake at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes (or 40 minutes or so for a loaf pan) or until a toothpick comes out clean and tops are golden brown.

Boy and Girl started back to school today, after the Christmas holiday, so I wanted them to have a really nice breakfast. French doughnuts (beignets) are one of their favorites, although they are kind of a pain in the neck to make on a busy morning and they do make the house smell like grease for the rest of the day. We served these with some scrambled eggs and a fruit-yogurt smoothie. I must admit that I do routinely use a mix to make these, but I adapt the recipe a tad and add a little cinnamon, a little more water and cut them smaller than the mix makers recommend. I always use Cafe du Monde’s mix and generally don’t have a problem finding it here in Texas (although I did have some momentary, selfish and ultimately, unfounded, panic about this after Hurricane Katrina), but if it is hard to find in your area, you can order off Cafe du Monde’s website or try a Cost Plus World Market store.

This is the Beignet mix that I use.

Beignets, rolled and cut, ready to be fried. I cut the rolled dough into strips about 2 inches wide, then cut across the strips to make squares/rectangles. This is a half-batch (1 cup mix to about 5 oz. of water and 1/4 tsp cinnamon). If I’m making them for company, I make more of an effort to cut them into more attractive, uniform, diamond-shaped pieces, but I was in a hurry today.

After frying, draining on paper towel. These are maybe just a TAD overdone, but still OK. I wasn’t patient enough this morning to mess with the thermometer to check the oil temperature. It’s also really important to use the right size pan and enough oil to allow the doughnuts to “float” as they cook – you don’t want to dough to be able to touch the bottom of the pan.

After being dusted with the absolutely crucial powdered sugar. The kids (OK, me, too…..) like to have an additional small mound of powdered sugar on their plates for “dipping/coating” after each bite.

I have enjoyed eating these since I was a little kid. I grew up in East Texas, just across the border from Louisiana, in an area strongly influenced by “Cajun” culture (gumbo recipe coming soon), and spent a lot of time at my grandparent’s house. My grandmother used to make these all the time. My grandfather and I would always pretend to “fight” for the last one, but, in the end, he would always let me have it. XOXO Pappaw!